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1.5.8-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapter 8: of moral busybodies, rumors, and societally enforced meekness Look at me, utterly failing to be a dedicated club member and falling farther and farther behind. Let’s see if we can’t get properly caught up, or at least make halfhearted gestures in that direction. So in this chapter we are once more hit over the head with the idea that gossip is bad and wrong and terrible and you should feel terrible if you gossip. Which would be a lot more believable if Hugo’s gossips weren’t the most dedicated secret chasers ever. Seriously, tone it down a bit there. No one’s going to listen to your messages about the human condition if they’re too busy being distracted by someone who literally stalk people to find out why they don’t hang their keys up on Thursdays. He does add the caveat that some people are just bad because they can’t keep their mouths closed, which is a more reasonable kind of person, but still. There are some seriously dedicated gossips in M-sur-M. More very obvious references to the teeth and hair, and I think we’ve eclipsed the silver at this point for obvious foreshadowing. I also want to point out that Fantine is “almost happy” and that’s sad in and of itself. Even at her best she can’t be fully happy because society has forced her to part from the thing she most loves and desires. So she writes a lot of letters. And this apparently means that she puts on airs? Okay then. Also I’m not sure I’d want my town letter writer to have a loose tongue. That seems like it could be potentially dangerous, much less embarrassing. Like, what if you have to write to your banker or something? (Okay, maybe people who actually have to deal with bankers are literate, but you never know. This is like telling Hagrid secrets except that the end goal is not for them to be exposed to the curious eleven-year-old future hero.) And now we get to meet Mme. Victurnien, who is the definition of a moral busybody and also, surprise surprise, physically unattractive. This coding of good and evil based on appearance is getting old. I do love this line: “Cette vieille femme avait été jeune, chose étonnante.” (Surprisingly, this old woman had once been young.) Reminds me of the bit in Matilda when Miss Trunchbull visits the classroom and one of the kids tell her that she must have been little once. So Mme. Victurnien is the widow of an ex-monk and has spent her time since the Restoration being bigoted and cruel and being rewarded for it. Several people have picked that apart, which is what happens when you post chapters several days late, so I’ll just add my agreement to the idea that behavior is learned and people are as prone to Pavlovian conditioning as dogs and will repeat behaviors that incur rewards. It doesn’t excuse her conduct in the slightest but it does start to explain it. (She’s probably also the kind of person who feels the need to tear others down to make herself feel better, especially if Fantine is seen as putting on airs and being holier than thou despite her fall.) Apparently all it takes to get fired from the factory is one person reporting that you’ve been morally impure. This… is not a good way to run a business in a town full of gossips and petty rivalries. So Fantine is fired and set adrift, right when the Thenardiers start asking for more money. She’s not particularly good at arguing her case, and she’s still got her borrowed furniture to pay off. Fantine has never been taught to stand up for herself, presumably because if she ever started to try she’d get knocked down for it. We’re not good about women standing up for themselves now, much less at the time and Fantine’s lower class and impure. Besides, we also have this: “M. le maire lui donnait cinquante francs, parce qu’il était bon, et la chassait, parce qu’il était juste.” (M. Mayor had given her 50 francs because he was kind, and he sent her away because he was just.) Fantine believes in her wickedness and impurity as much as do the people around her. She feels that her treatment is justified because of what she’s done and so of course she’s not going to try to defend herself. I just wish Valjean had been around; maybe if he’d intervened earlier it would have been better for everyone involved. But, alas, Hugo is fond of his coincidences, both fortunate and unfortunate.